Products November 5, 2009

Fidelity Adds Roth Conversion Resources

Fidelity Investments has added resources to its ongoing effort to help investors better understand whether converting their retirement nest egg into a Roth IRA is the best move for them.

Reported by

Fidelity said it has added a Roth Conversion Evaluator and additional content on the Fidelity.com Web site.

The Roth Conversion Evaluator can be used online by all investors, whether or not they are a Fidelity customer. With it, Fidelity said users can:

  • estimate current and future tax situations—based on a series of basic questions, users can receive an assessment to determine if they may benefit from a Roth IRA conversion;
  • evaluate how much to convert—Fidelity believes that users should minimize their tax cost when considering an amount to convert to a Roth IRA;
  • explore sensitivity to key factors—the tool helps to illustrate how changes in key factors, such as tax rates or withdrawal rates, might affect the outcome of an investor’s Roth IRA conversion decision.      =

“Fidelity believes that the opportunity to convert to a Roth IRA is an important consideration for all investors, particularly those who will become eligible for a conversion in 2010,” said Chris McDermott, senior vice president, investor education, retirement and financial planning, Fidelity Investments.

The evaluator product is available at www.fidelity.com/rothevaluator and additional education resources are available at www.fidelity.com/taxdiversification.

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More information about Fidelity’s offerings in the Roth IRA area is available at www.fidelity.com/rothconversion.
In Practice November 5, 2009

Wirehouse Movement Slows in October

Brokers are switching firms at a slower pace, and the largest number still go to another wirehouse firm rather than a new advisory channel, according to the Discovery Database.

Reported by

In October, 1,448 advisers moved firms, and 361 (25%) of them were in the wirehouse channel, down from 380 in September, according to the research firm, which tracks financial adviser movement month to month.

As data has previously shown, despite the hype that many wirehouse advisers are going independent, the largest number still go to another wirehouse when switching firms (see “Once a Wirehouse Adviser, Always a Wirehouse Adviser?”). Of the 25,109 reps that changed firms from October 2008 to September 2009, 40% were wirehouse reps, and more than half (53%) of wirehouse reps stayed within the wirehouse channel, according to Discovery.

Of the wirehouse reps who switched firms in October, 34% chose to go to another wirehouse— more than other channel. Other options brokers chose were: changing to an institutional focus (20%), going independent (18%), joining a bank (14%), and going to a regional firm (11%), according to the data.

Looking Back

The year started out with a lot of movement in the advisory sphere. On average, 2,140 advisers in all channels moved per month over the last year (from October 2008 to September 2009), according to Discovery. In the first quarter of 2009, there was a 17.6% increase in adviser movement from the last quarter of 2008.

However, there was a 24% decrease in adviser movement from the first quarter to the second quarter of 2009, and adviser movement remained about the same from the second to third quarter of 2009, according to the research firm.

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